Any issues using Intel ES chips longterm?

[TerryMathews]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignorantia_juris_non_excusat

Except that since the NDA/etc that govern these ES chips are civil agreements, "ignorance of the law is no excuse" does not apply.

Contrary to Intel's stated position, violation of that NDA is not theft any more than the guy who defaults on his Verizon bill and sells the phone. They can secure a civil judgment and compel you to return it, but as long as you cooperate they will never find a DA willing to try to stretch receiving property in violation of NDA to actual theft.

All that said, why bother? They used to be fun back in the day when they were the only unlocked Intel chips available but now they're locked down tighter than their retail counterparts.

 

[Joepublic2]

I have several ES Intel and AMD chips (and a Cyrix) just as conversation pieces. COME AT ME LAWBROS.

Only way to know if it'll work for your setup is to fire it up and see. I personally wouldn't want to use one for real work simply because they're often not as robust (as others have noted even if it passes stability tests it could crap out later; there's no guarantee its gone through manufacturing steps to weed out marginal devices) or as well supported by motherboard manufactures as retail devices. Don't sell it at a public auction if you do decide to get rid of it.

 

[Arkaign]

Except that since the NDA/etc that govern these ES chips are civil agreements, "ignorance of the law is no excuse" does not apply.

Contrary to Intel's stated position, violation of that NDA is not theft any more than the guy who defaults on his Verizon bill and sells the phone. They can secure a civil judgment and compel you to return it, but as long as you cooperate they will never find a DA willing to try to stretch receiving property in violation of NDA to actual theft.

All that said, why bother? They used to be fun back in the day when they were the only unlocked Intel chips available but now they're locked down tighter than their retail counterparts.

Pretty much this. Run of the mill ES, Intel doesn't have a reason to care. Compared to their actual production volume, ES is beyond tinier than a drop of a drop in an ant's bucket.

The exceptions would be products that are unreleased, and they want to keep a lid on them. This is why Apple went all Skynet on that Gizmodo guy. But yeah, after general release, there's no reason or value in worrying about ES units. They literally have no interest other than legal boilerplate BS to spend any time on it. Time is money, and Intel is FAR FAR FAR from a stupid corporation. Logic 101.

 

[jpiniero]

Pretty much this. Run of the mill ES, Intel doesn't have a reason to care.

Sure they do. They don't want employees / employees of OEMs selling them on eBay... which apparently from this thread is very popular. Get your hands on 10 ES samples, that could be 2-3 grand you could flip.

 

[andy2000]

I suspect most of the ES chips floating around were salvaged from the trash. I've bought many chips from E-recycling companies, and it's not that unusual to find some ES's in there. In a case like that, at best Intel might have a case against the company who failed to destroy it.

 

[Gillbot]

Not every NDA has the same restrictions and not every recipient of an ES is required to sign a NDA. Your one-size-fits-all approach is not realistic. How do you know the OP is not an Intel employee?

In my experience the use of ES chips is a little hit and miss. A few years ago I received an I7-990X which promptly died after tweaking the voltage just slightly. Other chips have performed rock solid for years despite being heavily OC'd. You never can be sure what you will get.

Ironic that my "one-size-fits-all" approach doesn't apply but yours must? Oh the ironing.

 

[GreenChile]

Sure they do. They don't want employees / employees of OEMs selling them on eBay... which apparently from this thread is very popular. Get your hands on 10 ES samples, that could be 2-3 grand you could flip.

I haven't seen anyone promote that idea on this thread. Certain posters in this forum (not implying you) seem to think there is no legal way of a person obtaining one for personal use which is flat out wrong. I'm sure if Intel discovered someone blatantly selling them on eBay they would step in to investigate. But as others have pointed out, Intel does not care to chase down everyone who might have kept one for personal use so long as it is not an unreleased chip.

 

[crashtech]

Certain posters in this forum (not implying you) seem to think there is no legal way of a person obtaining one for personal use which is flat out wrong.

Look, I really don't want to start an argument, but I do believe this point is relevant to the thread. If there is such a way, can you enlighten us? Because would like to avail myself one for personal use, but the evidence I have seen shows that it is not legal to do so.

 

[jpiniero]

seem to think there is no legal way of a person obtaining one for personal use which is flat out wrong.

According to the page on Intel's site, it sure looks that way.

 

[GreenChile]

Look, I really don't want to start an argument, but I do believe this point is relevant to the thread. If there is such a way, can you enlighten us? Because would like to avail myself one for personal use, but the evidence I have seen shows that it is not legal to do so.

It's quite simple actually. Go work for Intel. Like I said earlier, they give out thousands of these chips to employees each year for personal use. They are technically loaned out but I've never heard of anyone being asked to return them. Surely you can understand that they would not give these out to employees for personal use if it is not legal to do so.

 

[crashtech]

It's quite simple actually. Go work for Intel.

Guess I missed that? I didn't know you worked for Intel. And so for the rest of us that don't work at Intel, would you agree that technically, it is not legal to have an ES chip, or can I buy one from you legally?

 

[GreenChile]

Guess I missed that? I didn't know you worked for Intel. And so for the rest of us that don't work at Intel, would you agree that technically, it is not legal to have an ES chip, or can I buy one from you legally?

I don't have any knowledge of that. There may be avenues such as for sponsored tech gurus and such but I am not an expert in that field. My whole point has been that there is no blanket illegal status with possessing an engineering sample for personal use. I've given one example, there may be others.

 

[bononos]

It's quite simple actually. Go work for Intel. Like I said earlier, they give out thousands of these chips to employees each year for personal use. They are technically loaned out but I've never heard of anyone being asked to return them. Surely you can understand that they would not give these out to employees for personal use if it is not legal to do so.

Are you implying that you work for Intel and got those ES chips for personal use? Or did you buy them from an Intel employee?

 

[Deathhorse]

i ran a q9550 with a subtle OC for over a year no problems.

 

[Gillbot]

I don't have any knowledge of that. There may be avenues such as for sponsored tech gurus and such but I am not an expert in that field. My whole point has been that there is no blanket illegal status with possessing an engineering sample for personal use. I've given one example, there may be others.

Backpedal and sidestep all you want. I'm sure if you did work for Intel, you would also know that flaunting ES chips is frowned upon and can lead to trouble. Now if you do not work for Intel, then as stated, technically there is no legal way to obtain them.

 

[2is]

Some overly dramatic, not to mention sensitive AT members in this thread.

Personally, if I owned an ES chip, I wouldn't be concerned at the ES police raiding my home. I'd never use it in a machine I needed to rely on though, it would be more of a test bed chip/experimental chip than anything else. Actually, I'd probably use it for dedicated encoding box for when I transcode my blurays to M4V's for streaming to my Apple TV

 

[GreenChile]

Overly dramatic is right! I've had more success explaining calculus to my cat.

In my experience you can find out rather quickly how stable the ES will be with common stress testing tools. But as I've said, it mostly depends on the stepping you have.

 

[Headfoot]

ITT: Illegal for Intel Employees to have processors given to them by their employer

 

[hawtdawg]

There were guys selling ES laptop C2Q's on ebay for a pretty long time. Never once heard of anything happening over it. The popular one was referred to as the "QX9200", there's endless threads on it on notebookreview. Never heard of any legal action being taken.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Now if you do not work for Intel, then as stated, technically there is no legal way to obtain them.

OEMs and other Intel partners can also obtain them legally. They need them to test motherboards and so on in advance before the CPUs are released to the public.

 

[Lonbjerg]

Stolen goods spotted...Intel tipped off about this thread now.

 

[Lonbjerg]

AS far as I am concern I think as the Intel continues to ramp multi-core architectures across its product lines and developers become more adept at writing multi threaded code, this FAQ will become dated or obsolete. If you believe that an item is no longer valid or in need of updating you better consult some individual who have all detailed information about this.

Wrong thread?